[MLB-WIRELESS] Balloon AP (AKA fire in the night sky)

[John Dalton]

O> wouldnt metal attract lightning?

Good point.

I don't think the balloon would be the lightning attractor.  Rather,
assuming it is raining, it would be the piece of wet insulator used a a tether.
When it is wet, it would probably become a high impedance ground connection
with high field intensities around it due to it's small radius.  Different
cause, but the effect is the same.  BOOM!


In case anyone is interested, in itself metal doesn't attact lightning.
It's just that most metal objects have: i) small radii (ie. sharp) bits
and ii) a conducting path to ground.  Consequently in electrical storms they tend
to be surrounded by high intensity electric fields.  It is the field which
attracts lightning. Eliminate the conducting path, or eliminate sharp edges
from the object and the risk of lightning strike is reduced.

John

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